NBA Best Bets for Monday: Taking Two Big Underdogs

After a wild weekend with March Madness in the spotlight, April 1 returns our focus to the NBA. There are several games on the schedule today, and SportsGrid has a couple of five-star projections to get you involved in the action. 

Here are Monday’s NBA Best Bets!

Dunk on the sportsbooks tonight! Grab SportsGrid’s free NBA picks, NBA props, and NBA SGPs.

7:00 pm ET – Boston at Charlotte 

Spread: Boston (-16.5) | Total: 219.5

The Boston Celtics are a near lock for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, but they dropped back-to-back games against the Atlanta Hawks (by a total of three points) before bouncing back with a 12-point win at New Orleans. They now travel to Charlotte as massive favorites against the Hornets. Charlotte is a dreadful 18-56 on the season and has dropped two straight games at home by double-digits. Miles Bridges has been the team’s best player, but he’ll be outgunned by Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. 

Taking the Charlotte Hornets against Boston is a hold-your-nose pick. Still, the SportsGrid model is confident that Charlotte keeps this game closer than the spread, projecting a 13-point margin and making Charlotte (+16.5) a five-star pick. 

SportsGrid Best Bets: Charlotte (+16.5) | SportsGrid Model: 5-star projection

7:00 pm ET – Brooklyn at Indiana

Spread: Indiana (-12.5) | Total: 227.5

The Indiana Pacers trounced the Los Angeles Lakers to improve to 42-33 with a 6-4 record in the last ten games. They trail the Orlando Magic by 1.5 games for the fifth seed and are one-half game ahead of the Miami Heat, avoiding the play-in tournament (for now). Brooklyn’s six-game losing streak, which included a loss to the Pacers, collapsed any hopes the Nets had of making the play-in tournament. The Nets are just playing for draft positions at this point. Brooklyn is a large underdog on the road against the Pacers, and the SportsGrid model has a five-star pick on the road team.

The model has the Brooklyn Nets keeping this one close and the Pacers only winning by seven points, making the Nets at +12.5 a five-star projection.

SportsGrid Best Bets: Brooklyn (+12.5) | SportsGrid Model: 5-star projection